Obviously, I don't want to speculate, but either something went wrong from a natural/unnatural manner that was not foreseeable by us or human beings or somebody made a mistake or something.
Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process.
We also endure a Mine Safety and Health Administration that seeks power over coal miners versus improving their safety and their health. As someone who has overseen the mining of more coal than anyone else in the history of central Appalachia, I know that the safety and health of coal miners is my most important job. I don’t need Washington politicians to tell me that, and neither do you. But I also know — I also know Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming.
I’m scared that this provision will add a pretty significant cost. You’re going to see a lot of small guys just close up shop.
We firmly believe behavior modification and training are the keys to ensure miners know and want to do their work in a safe manner.
More money could be available for worker safety and health if we cut back on bureaucratic administration, because an OSHA/MSHA merger would end duplicative costs, duplicative employees and duplicative actions.
The basic idea is OSHA [and by extension MSHA] has lost its purpose. Its purpose started off being the health and safety of workers, and now it's been more like a cop on the beat who gets rewarded for the number of tickets he can hand out. And it has become an anti-business operation of the federal government.
Our production could be increased but we are severely hampered by overzealous Federal inspectors and voluminous and continually multiplying Federal laws and regulations.
But, I must say, that training and education in themselves are no panacea for the industry’s accident problem. What, in addition must be done is to find a way to motivate people to think and work safely. All miners must want to observe safety laws, rules, and regulations, and perform their daily task without endangering themselves and their fellow workers.
The coal industry accepts its responsibilities for the safe operation of its mines and where regulation achieves greater safety, we have no quarrel. But, where it does not enhance safety, we believe that Federal regulation is misplaced and counterproductive. Rigid, inflexible, thoughtless regulation, no matter how well intended, can have a plainly detrimental effect on achieving a safe, efficient, and productive coal industry. It’s the overregulation and enforcement of the Act as an end in itself that has caused the coal industry most of its problems…
